Source: The New York Times
Date: July 2, 1992
Byline: Lawrence Van Gelder

The Last Laugh

The Last Laugh
Jewish Repertory Theater
344 East 14th Street Manhattan

Two one-act comedies by Michael Hardstark; directed by Lou Jacob; sets by Rob Odorisio; costumes by Teresa Snider-Stein; lighting by Brian Nason; production stage manager, Nina Heller. Presented by Jewish Repertory Theater, Nina Heller, managing director; Ran Avni, artistic director.

IN THE CEMETERY, based on Anton Chekhov's story "In the Cemetery." WITH: Adam Heller, Ron Faber and Larry Block. THE CURE, based on Anton Chekhov's story "A Cure for Drinking." WITH: Larry Block, Nick Plakias, Barbara Spiegel, Adam Heller and Ron Faber.

In this age of seemingly unslakeable thirst for backstage gossip, picture this: a big star from New York theater drunk backstage in Cleveland while the audience waits out front. He nuzzles the women's costumes; he passes out; he wakes to call for vodka, to play all the roles in some wacky drunkard's-digest version of a spavined romantic drama, and in his spare time, to grope for the buxom actress-wife of the theater company's harried actor-impresario.

That bedeviled ham, for his part, must contend not only with his sodden box-office draw but also the prospect that if the curtain doesn't go up on his imported star, it is going to come down on his company. And to compound the chaos, there is a young actor who is eager for better roles, has written a play he'd like the impresario to read and wants to tell a little story about teaching a czar's horse to talk.

Can a horse talk?

To provide the answer, there is "The Cure," the delightfully frenetic bonbon written by Michael Hardstark and directed with verve by Lou Jacob that is the second part of their twin bill of comedy titled "The Last Laugh," being presented by the Jewish Repertory Theater.

More than a few big names might accurately be attached to the bottled-in-bond star lampooned in "The Cure." But the action unfolds in 1908, and the talented drunk is the inventively named Yossel Terrifimenschsky, an import from New York's flourishing Yiddish theater. As played by Ron Faber, he is an engaging troublemaker who can sorely vex his colleagues while managing to have the audience rooting for him to shake off his stupor, cut short his binge and light up the stage.

As the young actor Simcha Grubernick, Adam Heller neatly carries off a multifaceted role that allows him to make his entrance bearded and in Orthodox Jewish costume, to reveal himself as the clean-shaven immigrant author of the realist drama "The Kesslers of Hester Street" and later to pass himself off as a dandyish charlatan from Warsaw. And Larry Block manages to make merry with the torment of the actor-impresario, Prof. Leo Broder, who must cope with the alcoholism of Yossel and the determination of Simcha as well as the distractions of his outspoken wife (Barbara Spiegel) and his ineffectual brother, Morris (Nick Plakias).

Mr. Heller, Mr. Faber and Mr. Block also turn up, acquitting themselves ably but with less panache, in "In the Cemetery," the occasion's comparatively subdued curtain-raiser. Like "The Cure," it evokes the Yiddish theater and has been adapted by Mr. Hardstark from a Chekhov story about coming to terms with life and death. And like "The Cure," it bears the stamp of the talents of Rob Odorisio, Teresa Snider-Stern and Brian Nason, who deftly provide, respectively, the production's sets, costumes and lighting.